The Buzios Sailing Week is held annually around Easter time, and this year sponsored by mobile phone company VIVO, used ORC International, ORC Club, and local class rules to score three days of racing around the blue waters of Buzios for a fleet of 30 boats and over 200 sailors.

Conditions were near-ideal throughout the event, with 12-15 easterly breezes and rather choppy 1-2 meter seas. 15 boats competed in the ORC International division, 5 in ORC Club and 10 in local classes. Although there were not many entries, the technical level was excellent, as the best Brazilian boats participated.





Thursday, 20 March, and Saturday, 22 March featured two windward-leeward courses each day, while Friday a coastal race of 21-miles was set for the ORC International class and a shorter 16-mile course for the ORC Club fleet.

In all races of the ORC International Division, Mitsubishi GOL, a Judel/Vrolijk 57 previously known in Spain as “Tau”, scored an outstanding sequence of firsts in both elapsed and corrected time. Owned and skippered by Eduardo Souza Ramos, the crew of 15 displayed excellent teamwork, and showed the best preparation of boat and sails. “During the 21-mile inshore race we did make some mistakes, but they were all corrected and we managed to keep the lead until the finishing line,” commented Ramos.

Second was Celso Fernandez Quinttella Sorsa-Oi, a Farr 52 previously known as “Mascalzone Latino,” and third was Ernesto Breda’s “Touché,” a Botin-Carkeek 43, previously known as “Matador.” Fourth, and first of the several First 40.7’s in the competition, was "Odoya,” who hired Olympic Champion Robert Scheidt for the event.

In the ORC Club Division, the Beneteau First 47.7 “Angela Star,” owned by Peter Siemsen, a former Vice President of ISAF, dominated over the competition.

With this result, Mitsubishi-Gol scores two points for the Brazilian Offshore Racing Championship, organized by ABVO, the Brazilian Offshore Racing Association. The first event of this series was held in February at the Sailing Week of Florianopolis, and the next event will be in Ilhabela in July, during the ROLEX Ilhabela Sailing Week, and then later again in Rio de Janeiro, in the famous Circuit Rio, hosted by Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro.

 

Photos: Gonzalo Arselli / Filmers9900